Day is Ending: a doctor's love shattered by Alzheimer's disease

Often compared to "The Notebook," Day Is Ending is the true story of Dr. Richard Zalar’s long love affair with his wife, Trude, starting when he was a student and in the army during World War II, through their happy marriage, and up to her tragic slow death from Alzheimer’s disease. This love story which ends so sadly is sort of an American version of Elegy for Iris, by John Bayley, which was made into the award-winning movie, Iris. Professor Bayley was good enough to write the forward to Day Is Ending.

After Trude was too ill to be able to communicate, Dr. Zalar found a box in which she had saved all 347 of the love letters they had exchanged during their courtship. The book starts out with some of these letters and the ups and downs of their relationship until they got married in 1944. It then covers their life as a typical post-war couple in suburbia with two children, the doctor practicing medicine and the wife home taking care of the house and kids.

When the children were grown and married, like many couples the Zalars planned to retire to a life of travel and leisure, but before this could happen Trude starting having problems. First forgetting names and dates. Then she lost a valuable ring—or thought she had, but it was in her jewelry box all along. Then she lost her car. Tests at the Mayo Clinic confirmed what the doctor feared: Alzheimer's disease. He then did retire, but not to a life of playing golf and gardening, but to devoting himself to her care.